


In Place of Semantics

by MiriFern



Category: Dahmer (2002), Jeffrey Dahmer - Serial Killer, My Friend Dahmer (2017), Prestuplenie i nakazanie | Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Genre: But then I wrote it in like two weeks so, It's Okay, Not as good as I was hoping it would be, This is that college paper I was talking about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 15:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13010448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiriFern/pseuds/MiriFern
Summary: A lengthy college paper I wrote comparing Raskolnikov's rationalizing of his murders to the justifications of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, specifically their focus on "semantics" and atheism, as well as their separate conversions (or implied conversion) to Christianity.





	In Place of Semantics

Humans have a very strong sense of justice, though not everyone agrees on the limits of the law. This kind of subjective moralizing as opposed to objective truth is seen as a modern invention. When a crime is committed, the moment it becomes known, there is an automatic cry for justice—and by extension, punishment of the perpetrator. The drama of subjectification ensues when the crimes are particularly heinous, or the circumstances sympathetic, or the motives understandable. In the case of the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, the public reaction was visceral. Dahmer was viewed as the ultimate evil, corrupted beyond redemption or forgiveness, his soul as good as damned. 125 years before, the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky published a novel, _Crime and Punishment_ , whose main character, Raskolnikov, is in many ways similar to Dahmer. Both Dahmer and Raskolnikov struggled to form a cohesive sense of morality, justified their crimes with subjective, atheistic rationalism, and ultimately found grounding in the Christian faith.  


Rodion “Rodya” Raskolnikov is introduced as a college student living in St. Petersburg. His room under the stairs is compared to a cupboard, and his clothes are shabby rags. In addition to his own poverty, his sister is about to marry for money a man she despises, and his mother is also in dire financial straits. To remedy the situation, Raskolnikov murders a pawnbroker. Before committing the crime, he spends weeks planning it out and justifying it to himself. The pawnbroker is a cruel old woman who swindles her customers and abuses her younger half-sister; her death will make the world a better place and benefit Raskolnikov, who intends to rob her as well. It is not the killing itself, but this rationalistic reasoning, influenced by the new Western philosophies that were spreading through Russia at the time, which makes the story disturbing. “Had Raskolnikov had any moral justification for his crime, or been a defenseless victim of society, this book would have few elements of horror. But Raskolnikov is an “intellectual.” His crime is the outcome of a monomania,” (Hackett). The murder doesn’t go exactly as planned—Raskolnikov is forced to also kill the pawnbroker’s sister, who would have been a witness—but he manages to get away with it. Though there is no concrete evidence to indict him, Raskolnikov, for all his rationalizing, is eventually consumed by guilt and paranoia, until he has no choice but to confess or lose his mind. “To the very end, mind (sic) remains unrepentant. Even in prison, after his conviction, Raskolnikov still holds inflexibly to the idea that the murder is justifiable. And yet his whole being, his entire moral nature is shaken precisely by the moral aspect of the murder,” (Bem). In Russia at the time, the “Western philosophies” of Darwinism, nihilism, utilitarianism and rationalism were beginning to spread through society, influencing the views of students like Raskolnikov and weakening the power of the Orthodox Christian Church, which had served as the moral backbone of the region for centuries. Dostoevsky sided with the Russian Church (making him a “Slavophile”) and firmly believed that the foreign philosophies would lead to moral degradation.  


Jeffrey “Jeff” Dahmer was a homosexual serial killer who murdered seventeen men and youths, performed sexual acts with their corpses, and cannibalized a few of them. Diagnosed with various mental illnesses, among them borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and a non-specific psychosis, he waived his right to a trial, opting instead to argue that he was legally insane. His defense was unsuccessful, because in spite of all his horrific crimes, Dahmer never heard voices telling him to do it, didn’t hallucinate, didn’t throw fits. As his father stated in his memoir, “There was no screaming in the night, no rambling speech, no moments of catatonic blankness. He didn’t hear or see things that weren’t there. He never exploded suddenly, never so much as raised his voice in either fear or anger,” (Lionel Dahmer). He was of a sound mind, but ruled by violent, grotesque, perverse urges. For his crimes he received multiple life sentences (amounting to almost a millennium) and was eventually beaten to death in prison by another inmate.  


In an interview conducted by Stone Phillips a few months before his death, Dahmer described his mentality as he killed: “Because I always believed the lie that the theory of evolution is truth, that we all just came from the slime, and when we died, you know, that was it, there was nothing—so the whole theory cheapens life… If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point in trying to modify your behavior to keep it in acceptable ranges?” This idea of an individual being “beyond good and evil” whether by virtue of their intelligence, mental illness, or because the rest of the world seems indifferent to morals anyway, can be seen in the five motives Raskolnikov gives for his crimes: he was poor and he needed money; the pawnbroker was old and evil and her death would make the world a better place; he was compelled by a subconscious desire beyond our understanding; he was beyond good and evil, and finally “It was the devil who killed the old hag, not I”, relating to his lack of perception of man’s relationship with God and the cosmic order of the universe. (Santangelo)  


One of the options Raskolnikov considers in his despair is suicide. By his own admission Dahmer also longed for death, but couldn’t work up the nerve to kill himself. “Once his long confession to the police was complete, he sank into a fatalistic torpor. His first request to Detective Murphy was to be supplied with a Bible, which was granted, and he was convinced that Old Testament notions of retribution were justified in his case. He knew he deserved the death penalty (which does not obtain (sic) in Wisconsin), because ‘it executed justice quickly’,” (Masters). After his trial he experienced a religious conversion and was baptized in the prison whirlpool (for want of a baptistry). The pastor who performed the baptism, Roy Ratcliff, later wrote a book on the subject, where he described the largely negative reaction to the news. “Is there no joy in knowing that a sinner has turned to God? A gross misunderstanding of what Jeff’s baptism accomplished was apparent. No one said Jeff was no longer guilty of his crimes. He would not be released from prison, nor should he be, dependent on his baptism. Baptism does not take away crimes. It addresses sins. The issue in baptism doesn’t concern justice in the society. It concerns the forgiveness of God,” (Ratcliff). This is echoed by the earthly, societal punishment of Raskolnikov. “Guilt and punishment are virtually taken out of the sphere of ‘legal space’. So in _Crime and Punishment_ , Sonya urges Raskolnikov: ‘Go right now, this very minute, stand at the crossroad, bow down, first kiss the earth which you have defiled, and then bow down to the whole world [and not legal officials, I. E.], to all four corners and say to everyone, aloud: ‘I killed!’ Then God [and not a court of law] will send you life again.’ Sonya insists on the grace potentially conferred by suffering as opposed to juridical retribution for a crime. ‘Accept suffering and redeem yourself with it, that’s what you have to do’,” (Pattison). Raskolnikov’s eventual imprisonment in Siberia as punishment for his crimes is separate from the epilogue, wherein he consciously (rather than subconsciously) begins the road to “regeneration” which began as far back as either the tavern scene with Marmeladov, or the scene in which Sonya reads to him from the Bible.  


The character of Marmeladov, an alcoholic man with a wife and several children whom he fails to take care of due to his drinking habits, is introduced early in the novel, before the murder even takes place. Appropriately, Raskolnikov meets him in a tavern, where he recounts the sad details of his situation. His wife is dying of consumption, his teenaged daughter Sonya has been forced by poverty into prostitution, and his other younger children are starving. “His confession of how he had mistreated his family, of his drinking, and of the theft of money—to Raskolnikov, a stranger whom he has met in the tavern—is almost a burlesque foreshadowing of Raskolnikov's later penance, the kissing of the earth and his confession at the police station. Marmeladov is drunk, irresponsible, and still submerged in his selfish course of action; he welcomes suffering but continues to spurn his responsibilities; he is making a fool of himself in the tavern,” (Gibian). Marmeladov does have one thing in common with Raskolnikov—like many Dostoevsky characters, they both love to suffer, and continue to act in an irresponsible, selfish manner in spite of the consequences of their actions. Dostoevsky espoused a belief that it is human nature to resist transformation, and that we have a “desire to suffer” because we will refuse even positive change and continue in destructive behaviors out of spite.  


Dahmer was also an alcoholic. Beginning during his adolescence, he drank first to combat shyness and fit in with his peers. He gained a reputation as a “class clown” and would imitate the symptoms of palsy, speech impediments, and seizures, “making a fool of himself” for the amusement of others. Later on, he began to use alcohol as a way of dulling his conscience; he drank before, during, and after every murder. This would seem to imply that he did have a sense of morality, and that he was emotionally affected by the experience on a level beyond the satiation of his urges, but nonetheless it is often noted that he appeared largely devoid of expression and emotionally cold. Even his father Lionel commented “I look at his face, particularly in photographs taken during his trial, and I see no feeling in him whatsoever, no emotion, only a terrible vacancy in his eyes. I listen to his voice as he describes inconceivable acts. It is a monotone, utterly unaccented and unemotional.”  


Raskolnikov, too, is a man on fire inside, but he hides his emotions and lies convincingly enough that few suspect he is the murderer. His need for confession ultimately comes from within, as he suffers from paranoia and a lack of connection with others. “An inner, spiritual awareness of the necessity to accept suffering for his sins leads Raskolnikov to confess his crime, even though he knows there is no legally incriminating evidence against him. In Dostoevsky's view, all men share the spirit of Christ, and Raskolnikov's spiritual path is not only that of Christ, but of mankind in general. His crime can be compared with original sin and the fall of man in the Bible,” (Mann). It has been suggested that Dahmer deliberately grew “sloppy” in the last days of his killing spree; he had by then lost his job and was about to be evicted from his apartment. He himself admitted that he could have spent his time getting rid of the evidence and preparing to start anew, but he simply couldn’t stop killing. It was as if he had lost control; he even went so far as to claim “I think some higher power got good and fed-up with my activity and decided to put an end to it.”  


The hopeful epilogue of _Crime and Punishment_ has been questioned by critics and readers alike. It is often described as artificial, with many complaining that Raskolnikov’s redemption happens too quickly. Professor Michael Katz argues that the epilogue was intentional, and points to the scene with Marmeladov in the tavern as a summary of the entire message of the novel: “‘Why am I to be pitied, you say? Yes! there’s nothing to pity me for! I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross, not pitied! Crucify me, oh judge, crucify me but pity me! And then I will go of myself to be crucified, for it’s not merry-making I seek but tears and tribulation! … Do you suppose, you that sell, that this pint of yours has been sweet to me? It was tribulation I sought at the bottom of it, tears and tribulation, and have found it, and I have tasted it; but He will pity us Who has had pity on all men, Who has understood all men and all things, He is the One, He too is the judge,” (Dostoevsky).  


After Marmeladov’s death, Raskolnikov pays a visit to his daughter Sonya, who reads to him from the New Testament, at his request, the tale of Lazarus being raised from the dead. The story contains perhaps the nexus of Christianity as a whole, as contained by Christ’s words before the miracle: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26) The crucial final scene in the epilogue occurs on the banks of the river, which Raskolnikov had once considered a means of committing suicide. The first baptisms were performed in the river Jordan, and water is consistently a symbol of purity and of washing throughout the Bible. In a sense, Raskolnikov falling to Sonya’s feet by the river and being presented with her copy of the New Testament are a kind of metaphorical baptism, although it is left ambiguous whether or not her faith will become his faith.  


Dahmer’s baptism took place on the same day of a solar eclipse and the execution of another serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. The symbolism, while technically unintentional, wasn’t lost on those who observed the execution; they took it as a sign from God that the death penalty was evil. The lesser known event of Dahmer’s baptism, then, could point to a much different interpretation. “Perhaps reasons could be given on both sides regarding Dahmer’s baptism as well, that, in other words, the eclipse represented that the baptism was somehow evil and that Dahmer was beyond confession and forgiveness, or, rather, that the eclipse represented evil being overcome in the baptism,” (Carlin). Of course, many didn’t believe Dahmer’s conversion was genuine, including Christians, just as many readers find it difficult to accept the epilogue of _Crime and Punishment._  


Dahmer almost certainly never read the novel, which makes it especially interesting to hear him renounce in interviews the same sort of sentiments that Dostoevsky found so revolting in 1866. A line from the epilogue sums it up well: “In place of semantics, life had begun,” (Dostoevsky). Shortly before, Raskolnikov’s dream of a plague of trichinae infesting the populace of Europe was described. “But these creatures were spirits endowed with intelligence and will. Men attacked by them immediately started raving and went insane. But never, never did men consider themselves so intelligent and so unwavering in the truth as did the infected ones. Never did they consider their decisions, their scientific deductions, their moral convictions and beliefs so unshakable,” (Dostoevsky). In a time when universal moral truths are either cherry-picked or tossed aside entirely, when scientific reason is valued over natural morals, and when everyone is invited to create their own idea of what is acceptable, chaos becomes the norm. Dostoevsky saw it in his day, Dahmer permitted his life to be ruled by it, and even now there is a resurgence in concerns that we are becoming too subjective in our beliefs about good and evil. Perhaps no other biblical quote has ever been so relevant as the one which pronounces all things eternally relevant: “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

**Author's Note:**

> Bem, Alfred L. "Guilt in Crime and Punishment." Translated by Robert Louis Jackson. _Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism_ , edited by Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker, vol. 167, Gale, 2006. _Literature Resource Center_ , go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=pima_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420071218&asid=e9847a7902d6656f89fbe905975ffc6a. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published in _Readings on Fyodor Dostoyevsky_ , edited by Tamara Johnson, Greenhaven Press, 1998, pp. 58-62.  
> Dahmer, Lionel. (1994). _A Father’s Story: One man’s anguish at confronting the evil in his son. New York: Time Warner Paperbacks._  
>  Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, and Constance Garnett. _Crime and Punishment._ Canterbury Classics, 2018.  
>  Gibian, George. "Traditional Symbolism in _Crime and Punishment_." Literature Resource Center, Gale, 2017. _Literature Resource Center_ , go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=pima_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420002015&asid=ae4ec40759dde2958719f609090c232c. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published in PMLA, vol. 70, no. 5, Dec. 1955, pp. 970-996.  
> Hackett, Francis. _"Crime and Punishment." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism_ , edited by Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald, vol. 7, Gale, 1984. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=pima_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420012875&asid=1b5223ff044e2f06c8a45d00f3968e2d. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published in Horizons: A Book of Criticism, by Francis Hackett, B.W. Huebsch, 1918, pp. 178-185.  
> Katz, Michael. _Crime and Punishment Lecture._ Middlebury Union High School, January 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbweDNPP_Ak.  
>  Mann, Robert. "Elijah the Prophet in _Crime and Punishment_." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker, vol. 167, Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC &sw=w&u=pima_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420071228&asid=4cb1737926a363303b12e4f35575d1ca. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published in _Canadian Slavonic Papers_ , vol. 33, no. 3, Sept. 1981, pp. 261-272.  
> Masters, Brian. _The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer_. Hodder, 2007.  
>  Pattison, George. _Dostoevsky and the Christian Tradition._ Campbridge University Press, 2001, books.google.com/books?id=GlLm4gbPZdQC &lpg=PR10&ots=nILrKHL2dc&dq=%22crime%2Band%2Bpunishment%22%2Banalysis%2Bdostoevsky&lr&pg=PR10#v=onepage&q=%22crime%20and%20punishment%22%20analysis%20dostoevsky&f=false.  
> Phillips, Stone. “Confessions of a Serial Killer.” Dateline NBC, Feb. 1994.  
> Ratcliff, Roy. (2006). _Dark Journey, Deep Grace: Jeffrey Dahmer’s Story of Faith._ Siloam Springs: Leafwood.  
>  Santangelo, Gennaro. "The Five Motives of Raskolnikov." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker, vol. 167, Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=pima_main&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CH1420071224&asid=a0652bd2f8eb61e065ccf561caa8276a. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published in Dalhousie Review, vol. 54, no. 4, Winter 1974, pp. 710-719.


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